William Hayner

Art Professor

William Hayner

Disciplines:

Having fallen in love with California on a brief visit in 1981, I chose to make it my permanent home, although, being a native Texan, part of my heart will always reside in the dry, flat, rattlesnake and prairie dog infested flatland between Lubbock and Abilene.

I received my B.F.A., with a specialization in the area of drawing and painting, at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1975. I quickly sojourned to New York City where I hoped to be discovered as the Next Great Thing in art. However, I soon learned that, as hospitable as New Yorkers were, there were two things that made it impossible for a southern boy like me to call it home for long. First, the cold wet weather and, second, there was not a decent Mexican food restaurant to be found anywhere. It was so bad that when I walked into a restaurant that claimed to have Mexican faire and asked if they had cilantro, they would ask if that was perhaps an island off the coast of Italy.

All of which drove me west, where I discovered warm weather, plants that grow and even bloom in winter and at least a decent, and quite often an excellent, Mexican food restaurant on almost every block. I settled in Long Beach, entered graduate school and finished with my M.F.A. in 1987.

I am a practicing artist and have shown my work in regional, national and international exhibitions over the past twenty years. Drawing, painting and teaching are three of the great loves of my life. I have also developed a deeply rewarding relationship with mole sauce.